Railway-track structure.



No. 721,382." PATENTED FEB.\24,1903.

A (H. B. NICHOLS.

RAILWAY TRACK STRUCTURE.

APPLIGATION FILED DEG. 6, 1902.

no menu.

WASHINDTONAD c.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

HENRY B. NICHOLS, OF PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA.

RAILWAY-TRACK STRUCTU RE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 721,382, dated February24, 1903.

Application filed December 6, 1902- Serial No. 134,173. (No model.)

1'0 all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, HENRY B. NIoHoLs, a citizen of the United States,residing at Philadelphia, in the county of Philadelphia and State ofPennsylvania, haveinvented certain new and useful Improvements inRailway- Track Structures, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to those portions of railway-track structureswhich, owing to the passage of rolling stock and street trafficthereover, are particularly liable to wear and damage, and hence must berepaired or replaced at more frequent intervals than the remainder ofthe roadway. In these portionssuch, for example,ascrossings,frogs,switches, &c.it has become the practice to supply awear-plate of harder material than the remainder of the structure andformed with its upper surface in continuation of the rails, and as eventhis hardened plate soon wears out it is usually made removable from.the body portion of the structure, so that it may be replaced withoutdisturbing said body portion,to which the rail ends are attached. Unlessthis wear-plate is securely fastened to the body portion or base-pieceit speedily becomes loosened by the passage of rolling-stock and trafficthereover, resulting at once in trouble, and hence rigid and reliablesecuring means are necessary; also, as the vwear-plate must be replacedfrom time to time it should be readily removable at will. and thatpreferably without disturbing the adjacent pavement.

My invention therefore has for its principal object the improvement ofmeans for readily securing the wear-plate to and removing it from atrack structure.

A further object is to provide means for securing a wear-plate to thebase-piece of a railway-track structure, which means maybe placed inposition and be accessible from the ground-level and which may beremoved or disabled without chipping or digging away a part of thestructure or the surrounding pavement. V

A further object is to provide a new and efficient securing member forstructural units.

These and other objects will more fully'appear hereinafter.

An embodiment of the invention is described in the followingspecification, taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, inwhich like letters of reference indicate corresponding parts throughoutthe various figures, and in the drawings Figure 1 is a plan view of arailway-track crossing embodying my invention. Fig. 2 is a sectionalview of the same, taken on line I I of Fig. 1. Fig. 3 is a similar viewof a slightly- Inodified form. Fig. 4is an enlarged view in elevation ofthe securing means. Fig. 5 is an enlarged view in cross-section taken onthe line II II of Fig. 2 and showing the securing means in position, andFig. 6 is a similar view showing a slight modification.

Referring to the drawings, A represents a Wear-plate or a railway-trackcrossing formed with its upper surface in continuation of the railsandseated upon or in a suitable recess formed within a base piece orcasting B. The rail ends 0 are, as usual, cast inthe base-piece or arestub-rails to which the rail ends of the meeting tracks may be secured.Wear-plate A is provided with openings or channels a,

which are preferably located at each end and base piece in which similarchannels are formed in continuation of these for the reception ofsecuring members E. These securing members, as shown more in detail inFig. 4, are composed of two .outer parts e and one central or inner part6, made of hard steel or other suitable material and fastened together,

preferably, by rivets e of softer metal, such as copper or brass. Beforev riveting, however,distance-pieces e shownas short lengths of wire, areplaced between the parts, so that spaces are there provided, into whicha liner or filler may be introduced. Two of the outer opposite sides orfaces of the locking member are preferably at an oblique angle to eachother, so that its form as a whole is that of a wedge. The inner part eis wedge-shaped and arranged with its apex 6 toward the back c of thesecuring member or wedge E. The parts, it will thus be seen, haveoblique adjacent surfaces. The apex e of the part c is slightly short ofthe back .2 of the securing member, so that a blow struck by a broadtool upon the back 6 to drive the said member into place in thestructure will not fall upon the part e. The securing member thussloping to converge toward the center of the I formed is completed bythe introduction of a liner or filler F, of zinc or other suitable metalin a molten state, between its parts, as shown in Fig. 4. Instead ofusing rivets e for first fastening the parts together these may, ifdesired, be omitted and the parts otherwise held in position while theliner F is introduced, the liner then flowing through the rivet-holesand into their countersunk terminals, thus constituting the fasteningmeans to hold the parts securely together.

In forming the structure the wear-plate A is placed in position upon thebase-piece B and the securing members E driven into the openings orchannels above described. A suitable liner or filler f such as zinc,typemetal, or Babbitt metal-is then poured in a molten state throughopenings CL and flows into and fills the space between the wearplate andbase-piece and also in contact with the securing members. As the linerexpands slightly upon hardening,a perfect support for the wear-plate isthus formed and the securing members are held in position.

When it is desired to remove the wear-plate, a narrow tool is placedthrough an opening previously formed in the liner by the insertion of awooden piece a when casting the liner upon the end 6 of the inner part eand struck with sufiicient force to drive the part 6 down and into thecavity beneath the basepiece 13, shearing off the rivets e or theirequivalents. Owing to the previous cooling of the liner F of thesecuring member a thin film of oxid formed upon the exposed edges ofthis liner prevents its fiuxing with or adhering to the linerf, so thatwhen the inner part c has dropped out the remainder of the securingmember collapses and the wear-plate may be pried up in the usual way.

In the modification shown in Fig. 3 it will be seen that the securingmembers pass through openings in lugs depending from the wear-plateinstead of merely through openings provided in the wear-plate proper, asseen in Fig. 2.

As shown in Fig. 5, the linerf is guided down the outer surfaces of thesecuring members E by ways I), a space f at each side being also filledby said liner. In order to position the securing member E accurately inits channel when driving in, its outer inclined faces may be providedwith ridges 6 as shown in Fig. 6, to engage the sides or a side of theways b, the liner being then flowed in as before.

I wish it to be understood that although I have described a specificembodiment of my invention I do not desire to limit thereby its scope orapplication. For instance, it is applicable to frogs, mates, switches,650., and other track structures, as well as to crossings. The securingmember is also suitable for fastening other structural units besideswearplates and base-pieces of railway-track structures. Also while Ihave described the securing member as completed by the introduction of aliner before the general casting operation, this is not absolutelyessential, although desirable, as the securing member having its partsheld together by rivets and separated by the distance pieces may bedriven into the structure in that condition and have its interpartspaces filled by the liner in the general casting operation.

Having described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secureby Letters Patent of the United States, is

1. In a railway-track structure, the combination with a base-piece and awear-plate, of a securing member composed of three parts fastenedtogether and driven as a whole into engagement with said base-piece andwearplate, the central part being wedge-shaped and having its apextoward the outer end or back of the securing member.

2. In a railway-track structure, the combination with a base-piece and aWear-plate, of a wedge-shaped securing member comprising three partssecured together and driven as a whole into engagement with saidbase-piece and wearplate, the central part being wedgeshaped and havingits apex toward the outer end or back of the securing member.

3. In a railway-track structure, the combination with a base-piece and aWear-plate, of a securing member comprising three parts separated bydistance-pieces and fastened together, the central part beingwedge-shaped and having its apex toward the outer end or back of thesecuring member.

4.. In a railway-track structure, the combination with a base-piece andawear-plate, of a securing member comprising three parts fastenedtogether, the central part being wedgeshaped and having its apex towardthe outer end or back of the securing member, and a liner or fillerinterposed in a molten state between said base-piece and wear-plate andin contact with said securing member.

5. In a railway-track structure, the combination with a base-piece and awear-plate, of a securing member comprising three parts fastenedtogether and separated by distancepieces, the central part beingwedge-shaped and having its apex toward the outer end or back of thesecuring member, and a liner or filler interposed in a molten statebetween said base-piece and wear-plate and between the component partsof said securing member.

6. A securing memberfor structural units comprising three parts fastenedtogether, the central part being wedge-shaped.

7. A securing-wedge for structural units comprising three parts fastenedtogether, the central part being wedge-shaped and having its apex towardthe back of the securingwedge.

8. A securing member for structural units comprising three partsfastened together, the central part being wedge-shaped and having itsapex toward but inset with respect to the back of the securing member.

9. A securing member for structural units comprising three partsfastened together but separated by distance-pieces, the centralpartbeing wedge-shaped. V

10. A securing member for structural units comprising three partsseparated by distancepieces, the central part being Wedge-shaped, and aliner or filler interposed in a molten state between the parts.

11. A securing member for structural units comprising three partsfastened together, the

v central part being wedge-shaped, and a liner

